I was in a restaurant recently and watched a lady act a whole donkey over her order being wrong. Like the server was supposed to pick her sandwich apart to make sure whatever she asked to be added was on it. And despite the server apologizing (and never blaming the cook for the error) the woman went HAM. I'm pretty sure that she left little-to-no tip for having to wait an extra two minutes for her tomatoes or whatever she wanted on her sandwich.
Restaurant service has changed. Pretending otherwise is just performance art at this point.
A lot of servers today seem distracted, undertrained, or overwhelmed. Some are glued to their phones between tables. Some spend more time talking to friends who stopped by than checking on customers. And in many cases, management throws people onto the floor with barely any training and expects everything to run smoothly. Humanity keeps trying to operate billion-dollar industries on “figure it out as you go.” Inspiring stuff.
So yes, customers notice the decline.
But here’s the part people conveniently skip: bad service does not give customers permission to treat servers like slaves.
Some customers walk into restaurants carrying the energy of a king returning to inspect his castle. Snapping fingers, talking down to staff, threatening tips over minor mistakes, acting personally offended because a tea refill took an extra two minutes.
That behavior is ridiculous.
A distracted or inexperienced server is still a human being. Maybe the service is slow because the restaurant is understaffed. Maybe the kitchen is behind. Maybe the server is new and trying not to drown during a dinner rush. None of that excuses terrible service, but it also doesn’t justify humiliation as a response.
The truth is both sides have gotten worse.
Service standards have slipped in a lot of places, while customer entitlement has skyrocketed. And now every restaurant visit feels tense before the food even hits the table.
People don’t just go out to eat anymore. They go out looking for something to complain about. And some can't wait to document it and go live on social media to make things worse.
And somewhere in the middle of all this chaos is a tired server carrying three plates, a frustrated customer waiting on refills, and a manager hiding in the back pretending the Yelp reviews are make-believe. "Civilization" at its finest.
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